Professor
Nicolas Christou
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Most Helpful Review
the greatest quality christou has is his concern for student learning. his availability, as previously mentioned, is exceptional. no matter how "dumb" my questions were, he was always willing to take the time to answer them so that i understood everything. lectures are clear and comprehensible, but his tests are killer. however, the curve is generous, and if you study hard and go to his many office hours, you should be fine.
the greatest quality christou has is his concern for student learning. his availability, as previously mentioned, is exceptional. no matter how "dumb" my questions were, he was always willing to take the time to answer them so that i understood everything. lectures are clear and comprehensible, but his tests are killer. however, the curve is generous, and if you study hard and go to his many office hours, you should be fine.
Most Helpful Review
I was also fooled by the Bruinwalk evaluations. I honestly believe he's a terrible professor. He teaches to the people who have a background in statistics and doesn't really consider the fact that most people taking an introductory course to statistics don't know what they're doing. The TA for the class is great but obviously stressed out with the amount of material Christou requires him to teach and the number of confused students who don't even know what questions to ask. The exams are completely unfair and nothing like any of the homework or sample problems. Going to office hours doesn't help because he is very abrupt with students and doesn't take the time to listen to them before answering and not allowing time for them to understand. This class is incredibly frustrating unless you already know a lot about stats and don't need a professor to help you.
I was also fooled by the Bruinwalk evaluations. I honestly believe he's a terrible professor. He teaches to the people who have a background in statistics and doesn't really consider the fact that most people taking an introductory course to statistics don't know what they're doing. The TA for the class is great but obviously stressed out with the amount of material Christou requires him to teach and the number of confused students who don't even know what questions to ask. The exams are completely unfair and nothing like any of the homework or sample problems. Going to office hours doesn't help because he is very abrupt with students and doesn't take the time to listen to them before answering and not allowing time for them to understand. This class is incredibly frustrating unless you already know a lot about stats and don't need a professor to help you.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - This class, taught in fall 2021, requires students to use R to analyze several datasets containing the price of major stocks. Don't worry if you have never used R before; instructions are given before the beginning of the class, and you just run through his given commands on R. Professor Christou is clearly passionate about teaching and wants to spread the knowledge to the class. He's a very approachable if you have any question regarding either the course material or guidance. Overall, I recommend this course to you if you are interested in analyzing the stock market data with R in future, or if you are interested in getting guidance from a very knowledgeable professor.
Fall 2021 - This class, taught in fall 2021, requires students to use R to analyze several datasets containing the price of major stocks. Don't worry if you have never used R before; instructions are given before the beginning of the class, and you just run through his given commands on R. Professor Christou is clearly passionate about teaching and wants to spread the knowledge to the class. He's a very approachable if you have any question regarding either the course material or guidance. Overall, I recommend this course to you if you are interested in analyzing the stock market data with R in future, or if you are interested in getting guidance from a very knowledgeable professor.
Most Helpful Review
this fiat lux was a disaster no one knew what he was talking about, and if you tried to ask a question, he would get pissed off and yell back "why dont you already know that!" it was all stats formulas and had nothing to do with the topic. as long as you dont miss more than 2 classes, youll pass he doesnt really care if you do the one and only homework assignment correctly. maybe this guy is good for an actual stats class, but this fait lux was horrible!
this fiat lux was a disaster no one knew what he was talking about, and if you tried to ask a question, he would get pissed off and yell back "why dont you already know that!" it was all stats formulas and had nothing to do with the topic. as long as you dont miss more than 2 classes, youll pass he doesnt really care if you do the one and only homework assignment correctly. maybe this guy is good for an actual stats class, but this fait lux was horrible!
Most Helpful Review
STAY AWAY from Christou. His exams are psychological experiments, and do not measure what you know. The midterms are not inherently difficult, but there is not nearly enough time to complete them. His final exam? A total joke. It doesn't matter how much you study you will not do well. And he tells us this! "The test will be hard and long." I don't need to hear that when I have three other finals to worry about. I ended up with a grade that I did not deserve even after all of my hard work. Then he tells us "grades will be submitted on Tuesday" and they don't appear until a week later. I am NOT taking Christou for 100B solely because of his ridiculous final exam.
STAY AWAY from Christou. His exams are psychological experiments, and do not measure what you know. The midterms are not inherently difficult, but there is not nearly enough time to complete them. His final exam? A total joke. It doesn't matter how much you study you will not do well. And he tells us this! "The test will be hard and long." I don't need to hear that when I have three other finals to worry about. I ended up with a grade that I did not deserve even after all of my hard work. Then he tells us "grades will be submitted on Tuesday" and they don't appear until a week later. I am NOT taking Christou for 100B solely because of his ridiculous final exam.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2016 - First of all, I have to admit that Christou is one of the best professors at UCLA. He is the most approachable professor I have ever seen. He usually holds approximately 20 hours of OH a week, if you have any question anytime, u can find him. His office hours help a lot and he is extremely helpful. HOWEVER, there is a big but... His lecture is usually at an extremely fast pace that if you miss one lecture, it can be really hard for you to know what he is talking about in the next lecture. He gives tons of handouts and he doesn't use textbook, but these handouts are really helpful. THE MOST HORRIBLE THING about Christou is his exam. I just finished my second Midterm and I would say it is the MOST, MOST, MOST difficult midterm I have ever seen in my LIFE. I studied really hard for the midterm but I think it would be hard for me to get a score over 30. When I got the midterm during the exam, I found I don't know how to do question 1 part a), then I moved up to part b), then i found I don't know how to do part b), then I moved to part c), and I found I don't know how to do part c), I moved to fking part d) desperately. His tests are ridiculous, those tests are useless tests that make us study really hard to get a freaking low score. And by the way, his midterm is three-hour..... a little bit shorter than a final... Honestly, you don't need to prepare for the exam because staying up late at night won't improve your score even a little. He is still one of the best professors at ucla even though he gives ridiculously hard exams. But I do not recommend to take his class if you want to get an A or if you don't want to spend hours and hours of useless time on preparing for his exams while getting a heartbreaking score.
Fall 2016 - First of all, I have to admit that Christou is one of the best professors at UCLA. He is the most approachable professor I have ever seen. He usually holds approximately 20 hours of OH a week, if you have any question anytime, u can find him. His office hours help a lot and he is extremely helpful. HOWEVER, there is a big but... His lecture is usually at an extremely fast pace that if you miss one lecture, it can be really hard for you to know what he is talking about in the next lecture. He gives tons of handouts and he doesn't use textbook, but these handouts are really helpful. THE MOST HORRIBLE THING about Christou is his exam. I just finished my second Midterm and I would say it is the MOST, MOST, MOST difficult midterm I have ever seen in my LIFE. I studied really hard for the midterm but I think it would be hard for me to get a score over 30. When I got the midterm during the exam, I found I don't know how to do question 1 part a), then I moved up to part b), then i found I don't know how to do part b), then I moved to part c), and I found I don't know how to do part c), I moved to fking part d) desperately. His tests are ridiculous, those tests are useless tests that make us study really hard to get a freaking low score. And by the way, his midterm is three-hour..... a little bit shorter than a final... Honestly, you don't need to prepare for the exam because staying up late at night won't improve your score even a little. He is still one of the best professors at ucla even though he gives ridiculously hard exams. But I do not recommend to take his class if you want to get an A or if you don't want to spend hours and hours of useless time on preparing for his exams while getting a heartbreaking score.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2018 - Instead of complaining again about the super hard exams that everyone already knows. I would like to talk something else about Dr. Christou. I know that his tests may make your quarter super stressful and all, but if you plan to go to graduate school, you should take at least one class with him. It gives you the taste of graduate school, the "challenging academic life" that you always want to have as stated in your Statement of Purpose. I took 100B and 100C with him. I spent at least 3 hours every weekday to study for his class alone. His tests force you to learn, and sadly, yes, you have to put more priority to his class in order to do "good" on the tests. He helped me so so so so much when I applied to grad schools as he would do to you too if you ask him. That was when I realize how much he cares about students' success. You should not go to his office hour before having already tried your best on the assignments, show him that you made efforts to solve them. Now probably you think that I go to his OH everyday and am his favorite student or something, NO, I barely went to his OH, less than 5 times when I took 100B. If you plan to go to grad school, take a class with him, before you apply, go to his OH to ask for advice, tell him what your plan/concern is. To those who are applying to grad school in statistics: GPA, major, and whether if you took Math115A/131A/151AB/164 /142 matter the most when you apply.
Fall 2018 - Instead of complaining again about the super hard exams that everyone already knows. I would like to talk something else about Dr. Christou. I know that his tests may make your quarter super stressful and all, but if you plan to go to graduate school, you should take at least one class with him. It gives you the taste of graduate school, the "challenging academic life" that you always want to have as stated in your Statement of Purpose. I took 100B and 100C with him. I spent at least 3 hours every weekday to study for his class alone. His tests force you to learn, and sadly, yes, you have to put more priority to his class in order to do "good" on the tests. He helped me so so so so much when I applied to grad schools as he would do to you too if you ask him. That was when I realize how much he cares about students' success. You should not go to his office hour before having already tried your best on the assignments, show him that you made efforts to solve them. Now probably you think that I go to his OH everyday and am his favorite student or something, NO, I barely went to his OH, less than 5 times when I took 100B. If you plan to go to grad school, take a class with him, before you apply, go to his OH to ask for advice, tell him what your plan/concern is. To those who are applying to grad school in statistics: GPA, major, and whether if you took Math115A/131A/151AB/164 /142 matter the most when you apply.
Most Helpful Review
Christou is one of the best lecturers here at UCLA. I can honestly say I still use some of the stuff I learned in his class for my other classes. His tests are extremely tough and they require a lot of your KNOWLEDGE, not your memory. Yes, he allows open notes but if you don't know the material then your notes are of no use to you. You have to study for his tests as if you aren't allowed to use notes. You won't need the text for his class, and personally I think he should write his own text (if he hasn't already). He's absolutely brilliant, funny, all-around great. The greatest thing about his class is the satisfaction of knowing you've actually LEARNED and what you've learned doesn't go away after the final.
Christou is one of the best lecturers here at UCLA. I can honestly say I still use some of the stuff I learned in his class for my other classes. His tests are extremely tough and they require a lot of your KNOWLEDGE, not your memory. Yes, he allows open notes but if you don't know the material then your notes are of no use to you. You have to study for his tests as if you aren't allowed to use notes. You won't need the text for his class, and personally I think he should write his own text (if he hasn't already). He's absolutely brilliant, funny, all-around great. The greatest thing about his class is the satisfaction of knowing you've actually LEARNED and what you've learned doesn't go away after the final.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2018 - This is an extremely interesting class and professor Christou does an amazing job of teaching it. Knowing what to do with spatial data is an increasingly important skill, and in this class you'll learn how to analyze if there are trends in spatial data, make predictions, create heat maps, contour maps, etc. Dr. Christou is one of the best instructors in the department and you will walk away with rigorous and practical knowledge.
Spring 2018 - This is an extremely interesting class and professor Christou does an amazing job of teaching it. Knowing what to do with spatial data is an increasingly important skill, and in this class you'll learn how to analyze if there are trends in spatial data, make predictions, create heat maps, contour maps, etc. Dr. Christou is one of the best instructors in the department and you will walk away with rigorous and practical knowledge.
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